Indian cybercrime by the numbers: what NCRP, 1930 and the RBI's 2025-26 report actually show

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Complaints to the national cybercrime portal keep rising, reported losses were about ₹22,500 crore in 2025, and the 1930 system has saved more than ₹11,000 crore. The RBI's bank-fraud tables tell a different, narrower story.

01 / Complaints and losses

The National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP, cybercrime.gov.in) and its financial-fraud arm, the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS), are India's best near-real-time measure of cyber fraud. The key figures from 2025 and 2026:

• 2021 to 2025, all years: more than 65.89 lakh financial-fraud complaints on the NCRP, more than ₹55,050 crore reported lost, more than ₹8,189 crore marked as lien, and more than 1,95,760 FIRs. Source: Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Lok Sabha unstarred question 251, 21 July 2026.
• 2025: 28.15 lakh cases, up from 22.68 lakh in 2024, and at least ₹22,495 crore lost, against ₹22,845 crore in 2024. FIRs fell to 55,484 from 66,370. Investment fraud made up 76% of the money lost. Source: MHA data reported by ThePrint, 21 February 2026.
• Senior citizens and women, 2025: 1,03,488 senior citizens reported ₹4,005.12 crore lost and 4,63,114 women reported ₹3,764.51 crore, a total of ₹7,769.63 crore. Source: MHA reply to the Rajya Sabha, reported by ANI, 5 August 2026.

For context, the NCRB's Crime in India, which counts registered FIRs rather than portal complaints, has only reached 2024, the MHA says. Portal complaints and FIRs are different measures and should not be compared directly.

02 / The 'golden hour': what 1930 saves

CFCFRMS, reached by calling 1930, lets banks put stolen money on hold before it is moved through further mule accounts. The MHA's running total of money "saved" has grown quickly:

• More than ₹8,189 crore in 23.61 lakh complaints up to 31 December 2025 (Rajya Sabha answer, 4 February 2026).
• More than ₹11,158 crore in 32.80 lakh complaints up to 30 June 2026 (Lok Sabha answers of 21 and 28 July 2026).

Earlier figures conflict. ThePrint, citing an MHA reply from December 2025, gave ₹7,130 crore saved across 23.02 lakh complaints. That figure probably has an earlier cut-off date. The Lok Sabha answer of 21 July also gives exactly ₹8,189 crore as the amount "marked as lien" for 2021 to 2025, the same number as the December 2025 "saved" total. MHA answers do not say whether "saved" and "lien-marked" mean the same thing.

Other I4C figures as of 30 June 2026: the Suspect Registry has shared 30.48 lakh suspect identifiers and 32.08 lakh first-layer mule accounts, and declined transactions worth ₹25,698 crore. 15.75 lakh SIM cards and 5.77 lakh IMEIs have been blocked.

03 / What the RBI's annual report shows, and doesn't

The RBI Annual Report 2025-26, published on 29 May 2026, says banks and financial institutions reported 10,114 frauds involving ₹48,021 crore in 2025-26, against 23,722 frauds worth ₹32,803 crore in 2024-25 (Table VI.2).

• Card, internet and digital payments (Table VI.3): 293 cases, ₹29 crore in 2025-26, against 13,332 cases and ₹517 crore in 2024-25, and 28,836 cases and ₹1,452 crore in 2023-24.
• Advances (loan fraud) made up most of the total: 8,640 cases and ₹40,774 crore.
• The 2025-26 figure includes 314 older cases worth ₹30,199 crore. These were reported again after re-examination to comply with a Supreme Court judgment of March 2023.

The digital figure does not mean digital fraud collapsed. The table counts only frauds of ₹1 lakh and above reported by banks, many of which happened years earlier. Most retail cyber fraud involves smaller sums reported by victims to 1930 and the NCRP. The RBI does not explain the sharp fall. Some press reports gave different card-fraud shares; we have relied only on the RBI's own tables. Separately, the RBI says it is building a Digital Payment Intelligence Platform, whose first phase has run since August 2025, and will explore adding "frictions" to some digital payments to counter authorised push-payment fraud.

04 / Confirmed vs. claimed

Confirmed from primary documents: the NCRP totals for 2021 to 2025, the CFCFRMS totals, the Suspect Registry and blocking figures, and the RBI fraud tables. Reported but not seen in primary documents: the 2025 year totals (₹22,495 crore; 28.15 lakh cases) come from MHA data given to ThePrint, and the figures for women and senior citizens come from ANI's report of a Rajya Sabha answer.

05 / What to do now

• If you lose money, call 1930 within the first hours. Every figure above depends on fast reporting. Then file a complaint at cybercrime.gov.in.
• Tell your bank at once as well. Keep the transaction IDs, UPI references and screenshots.
• Report scam calls and messages through Chakshu on Sancharsaathi.gov.in.
• Be most wary of "investment" offers on WhatsApp or Telegram. By the MHA's data, they caused about three-quarters of losses in 2025.
• Never rent out or "lend" your bank account or SIM. Mule accounts are now a main enforcement target.